Why You Can Trust CNET HP Pavilion Media Center m7070n review: HP Pavilion Media Center m7070n
The sleek m7070n Photosmart PC combines a generous set of A/V connections with whisper-quiet operation and a specialized drive bay for HP's removable Personal Media Drive. This monitor-less system would be perfect for living room use if not for the subpar audio and the wired mouse/keyboard combo.
HP continues to impress with its Photosmart line of Media Center desktop systems. Priced at $1,250, the HP Media Center m7070n Photosmart PC offers powerful performance, a generous software bundle, and a boatload of features, including a couple--a removable Personal Media Drive and a LightScribe DVD burner--you won't find from other manufacturers. It's a good thing the m7070n Photosmart PC is loaded, as it's sold at retail and not customizable.
In a departure from the black-and-silver color scheme we saw on the HP Pavilion m1050y, HP houses the m7070n Photosmart PC in an all-silver midtower chassis, with matching optical drive and accessory doors. While the midtower form factor may not match your existing rack-mount components, its stylish case design and quiet operation still make the system living room-friendly.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
On the upper-front bezel sits a 9-in-1 flash card reader and below that two optical drives: a double-layer LightScribe DVD burner and a DVD-ROM drive. HP's LightScribe technology lets you burn grayscale text, photos, and preformatted CD label art directly onto specially coated CD-Rs, using one of three bundled programs (WinDVD Creator, RecordNow, or iTunes) that support LightScribe labeling. The LightScribe media costs $8.99 for a five-pack and adds a professional, if time-consuming, touch to your projects. Once we had our art set up, it took us 30 minutes to burn a disc label containing four 36K images and a small amount of text.
Below the optical drives are two hinged panels. The right contains clearly marked audio and video ports, including S-Video, composite video and stereo inputs, microphone and headphone jacks, two USB 2.0 ports, and a FireWire port. The left panel hides the Personal Media Drive bay, which accepts optional HP removable drives. Personal Media Drives--available up to 400GB--fit snugly in the HP Media Center m7070n Photosmart PC and can also connect to any PC via USB 2.0. Our review system didn't come with a Personal Media Drive, but you can add a 160GB drive for $189. The drive makes data backups a snap and, when used as a removable USB device, provides an easy way to share your music or movie collection with a friend.
Rear-mounted integrated connections include four USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire port, an Ethernet jack, digital audio-in and -out jacks, and audio outputs supporting 7.1 surround sound, courtesy of Intel's High Definition Audio chip. The integrated sound is adequate, but it can't match the quality of a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 card. Only one of three standard PCI slots are available (the single PCI Express slot is occupied), along with two of four memory slots, limiting the system's upgrade potential. Behind a sliding panel on the top of the case is a storage area for recordable media that can also serve as a camera or iPod dock when used with the included adapters.
The HP Media Center m7070n Photosmart PC is powered by Intel's 3.2GHz Pentium 4 640 processor and an Asus Puffer 2 motherboard based on Intel's 915 chipset. The system ships with 1GB of 400MHz DDR2 memory, a 250GB SATA 7,200rpm hard drive, a 128MB ATI Radeon X300 SE video card, and a Hauppauge WinTV TV tuner card. TV tuner cards typically can't match the image clarity produced by a set-top box, but signal noise and jitter were minimal, even if the picture could have been sharper.
Compared to its Media Center competition, the HP Media Center m7070n Photosmart PC turned in solid benchmark scores, thanks in part to its hefty Pentium 4 640 processor and 1GB of memory. On our SysMark 2004 tests, it edged the Gateway 832GM and its Pentium 4 630 processor by 6 percent, but compared to Media Center PCs from HP and Shuttle with a Pentium 4 500-series processor, the m7070n Photosmart PC outpaced them by 11 and 12 percent, respectively.
The m7070n Photosmart PC didn't fare as well on our 3D graphics and gaming performance tests, scoring 18.1 frames per second (fps) on our Half-Life 2 test at 1,024x768. Today's high-end SLI-based gaming systems typically score well above 100fps on this test. However, the m7070n Photosmart PC is a Media Center PC and uses an entry-level 3D card. Upgrading to a high-end graphics card will greatly improve the system's 3D graphics and gaming performance. Unfortunately, the system ships as is, so you'll have to make this upgrade after purchase.
There's no shortage of video connections, as the WinTV card provides inputs for TV, FM radio, S-Video, and composite video; the ATI Radeon X300 SE also has a VGA connector as well as S-Video and composite video outputs. This PC does not use a BTX form factor, but the system fans and the hard drive are virtually silent, making the m7070n Photosmart PC very quiet overall, an increasingly important factor in all PCs, especially Media Centers.
The system doesn't ship with a monitor or speakers, so you'll have to shell out for these components unless you plan on connecting the HP Media Center m7070n Photosmart PC to an existing A/V setup. The m7070n includes a standard USB sensor for the included Media Center remote control, an IR blaster for controlling your cable box with the remote, and a multimedia keyboard and optical mouse that match the system's silver finish, although neither is wireless. Along with Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, the m7070n Photosmart PC ships with enough software to get you started recording your favorite TV shows, editing and organizing photos, creating DVDs, and recording or playing your favorite tunes. Bundled titles include HP's Image Zone Plus photo-editing suite, Apple iTunes, InterVideo WinDVD Creator, Muvee Technologies AutoProducer, and Sonic RecordNow, as well as Microsoft Works 8.0, Money Standard 2005, and Quicken 2005 New User Edition.
HP includes several printed manuals and a quick-setup card with the HP Media Center m7070n Photosmart PC, and HP's Web site has a comprehensive support and troubleshooting section for this model, including user documentation, setup and installation instructions, drivers and software downloads, and a problem-solving tutorial. The one-year parts-and-labor warranty comes with 90-day software support, and you can extend the service plan to two ($169.99) or three years ($219.99).
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
 | BAPCo SysMark 2004 rating | | SysMark 2004 Internet-content-creation rating | | SysMark 2004 office-productivity rating |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
| Half-Life 2 1,024x768 4xAA 8xAF |
Find out more about how we test desktop systems.
Gateway 832GM
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005; 3.0GHz Intel P4 630; Intel 915G chipset; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 128MB integrated Intel 915G (shared memory); WDC WD2500JD-22HBB0 250GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA
HP z555 Digital Entertainment Center
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005; 3.0GHz Intel P4 530; Intel 915G chipset; 512MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 128MB Nvidia GeForce 6600 (PCIe); Maxtor 6B250S0 250GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA
HP Media Center m7070n Photosmart PC
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005; 3.2GHz Intel P4 640; Intel 915G chipset; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 400MHz; 128MB ATI Radeon X300 (PCIe); Seagate ST3250823AS 250GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA
Polywell MiniBox 939AX
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005; 2.1GHz AMD Athlon 64 3200+; ATI Radeon Xpress 200 chipset; 512MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 64MB (shared) integrated ATI Radeon X200; Seagate ST3200822AS 200GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA
Shuttle XPC G5 8300mc
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005; 3.0GHz Intel P4 530; Intel 915G chipset; 512MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 6600 (PCIe); WDC WD2500JD-98HBB0 250GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA